It's me, just showing off my cobblestone. I only managed to take one good close up shot today:

This is 2" pink insulation foam, textured by pressing a rock into it and drawn on with a soldering iron. The paint job is simply three shades of gray drybrushed over black. I plan on adding brown and green stains to give it some color and break up the monotony of gray.

Dedgob: The cracks look like that naturally, after the melting. Also they are a shinny black because of the spray paint i used: Krylon H2o latex. It does not melt foam but is not the matte finish i wanted. After painting the cobblestones i decided i like the shine in the cracks, it looks damp and dirty.

And: The soldering iron was heated up, but i had to keep regulating the temperature by unplugging it. If it got too hot the cracks were too wide and too cool it wouldn't cut at all.

You can see some areas where it got too hot and the lines are thicker and deeper, that was my signal to unplug it. This variation actually adds character i think.

Deaf: Yeah, i had to take breaks from time to time when i got headaches! I moved to a more ventilated place quickly and tied a rag around my face!

Yes, this is a lot quicker than drawing them on and i really like the depth of the gaps. I find that with a pen i have to repeat the lines to make them deep enough and i always have to be careful about ripping the foam. With my method, it is just one quick pass with the soldering iron.

I have not used the stamp method but i imagine designing the stamp would be a hurdle i never cross.

I'm going to mess around with drawing designs on the foam and tracing with the iron to get fancy cobblestone patterns.

This picture shows the scale better. Also i will explain how each area was textured:1. A rock was pressed into the foam.2. The sides of these steps have the traditional drawn on with a pen method.3. This platform was textured with a rock, and diagonal cuts with a very sharp blade formed the large stones.4. Once again, textured with a rock, and melted with a soldering iron to form the cobblestones.

It doesn't get as hot as a soldering iron, and is specifically designed for foam. I recently purchased it and I LOVE it!! They also offer an adjustable power supply that can take it a step further and give you even more control on how hot it gets. It might be a tad on the costly side, but WELL worth it. When I get home I will post a picture or two of my results if you like.

@HornedRat - well, now I know what goes on my Yule list . Please do post pictures of your results! I'm not trying to speak for the forum mods or anything, but posting your results in a different thread would help keep yours and Pathfinder Dubstyles's thunder from mixing...

...and we wouldn't want that, i think the thunder mixing of both of our awsome cobblestone melting goodness would create a terrain storm the likes of which haven't been seen since the static grass typhoon of 2005. I hear no one uses flock anymore!

Well I dont want to steal anyones thunder that is for sure. I do think that the cobblestones looks great!

Tools of course are a matter of prefrence for most artists, and sometimes the best tool is not always the one meant for a particular job. In this case I personally LOVE the foamworks tool so I thought I would share.

I dont think my example warrants a new post, and I dont want to spoil the thread with my pictures

Anyway, I dont have any painted examples of cobblestone work I have done with the Foamworks tool, so I did up a quick example for you here http://www.pbase.com/therat/image/117770396/medium I posted it its original size so you can get a VERY up close look if you want. Just click the Original button under the picture (its a large picture). I just used some cheap white packing foam for this example, but it works just as well on pink or blue.

I did something similar for halloween when I hand made tombstones from the yard. You can buy a dimmer switch (the kind for dimming lights) and plug the soldering iron into it. Then you can regulate the exact amount of heat going to the iron. I never thought of using that technique in Mordhiem though! Damn good job!